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There’s a bug in my food

I went to Maokong [貓空] yesterday after work for a late lunch. I went with a couple classmates and their Taiwanese friends. We left the ordering to our Taiwanese friends, during which time I was only half-paying attention to everything they said to our server. So when the food came weren’t we all stunned to find this lovely plate of deep fried bugs. They seemed pretty tasteless outside of the slight spice that was added to them. I never expected anything like this in Taiwan… I thought I had to go to Southeast Asia for such a dish.

At the end of the meal only the peanuts were still on the plate, all the bugs were eaten… strange. I ate my share of the plate because I figured something like this must have some sort of SciFi-like effects on reproductive capabilities (for the better, otherwise who would order it?).

The general haze over Taipei prevented me from taking any decent shots of the skyline, 101 wasn’t even visible. Also, last time we came here we came without any decent Mandarin speakers… we ordered a fried rice with beef which was absolutely delicious, when we attempted to order the same thing this time everyone looked at us like we were from outer-space.

Frost – The first time I came here I went with my friends… we were all about the same level in our speaking ability but I was the most confident in my ability, so the ordering was up to me, without looking at the menu, in Chinese I ordered: “the best chicken dish, the best beef dish, the best rice dish, the best fish dish, the best noodle dish, the best vegetable dish, and the best shrimp dish.” The crew brought out one of the best feasts I’ve had in my life…
…this time I sit back and let native speakers do the ordering and look what I get? Bugs and a couple plates of tasteless food… that’s the last time I let something like this happen.